1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to woodworking machines and more particularly to machines of the type generally referred to as picket headers capable of arcuately shaping or pointing the ends of fence pickets.
It is common practice to form enclosures or privacy fences by a plurality of vertically disposed closely spaced elongated relatively narrow boards or slats. To enhance the fence appearance and form a finished top edge, the upper end portion of the respective picket is arcuately shaped from opposing sides to form a gothic arch or tip on the respective picket. Since the number of pickets are numerous in building a fence around even a relatively small enclosure, it is desirable to provide a machine for forming the arcuate cuts pointing the respective pickets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fence pickets, as presently used, are formed from wood stock of a selected length commonly referred to as 2.times.4 stock in which one end of the 2.times.4 is cut to form the arcuate pointed end and thereafter the stock is longitudinally split to form two, 1.times.4 pickets, each having the desired pointed end. Heretofor the pointed end has been formed by manually guiding a power saw which is time consuming and inefficient from a labor cost standpoint.
The most pertinent prior patent is believed to be U.S. Pat. No. 2,600,055 which provides a frame having a horizontal platform-like top supporting a clamping arrangement for gripping a plurality of juxtaposed picket forming members. The frame pivotally supports a motor driven cutter in which the arc of travel of the rotating cutter arcuately cuts one side of the end portion of the several pickets. Following the first cut, the clamping means must be released and the pickets inverted and reclamped for the successive or second cut to complete the pointed end, thus, at least one workman is required to position, reposition, remove and then add more picket forming stock which is a relatively slow time consuming task relative to the number of pickets being formed.
This invention is distinctive over the prior art by providing a machine which includes an upstanding open frame adjacent a picket supply conveyor, for delivery of the stock in sequence with the machine action. The stock is successively received by a motor driven reciprocating carriage, automatically clamped at its respective ends and moved by the carriage into contact with rotating cutters to form the arcuate pointed end, after which the carriage clamps releases the finished point stock for discharge from the frame.